> From: "Denise Mangano" <DeniseM@complusdata.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 5:16 PM
> Subject: [OT]JSP defense - can you point me in the right direction
> Seeing as how I am going to be doing the web dev part, while the others
deal
> with the complex database structure and project management tasks, I am
> trying to sell them on using JSP/Tomcat. They are insisting on using CGI
> scripts, which I personally feel is too fundamental for the task at hand.
Tell them that it's 2003 and not 1995. WebApps as a class of applications
have matured, and there are entire bookcases written on the topic at your
local Barnes and Nobles bookstore. I can't fathom anybody who wanted any web
project of any moderate complexity doing it in straight CGI.
This is not a CGI vs JSP topic, it's a CGI vs Modern WebApp Framework topic.
Whether it's JSP, PHP, ASP, or any of a plethora of other platforms.
CGI is still quite valuable and viable for small utilities and what not,
particularly for the small web hosts that "only allow CGI".
But, if it's not a deployment requirement, then I'd run away screaming and
latch on to ANY of the modern web app architectures and just cling tight
screaming "NO NO NO" as they tried to peal it out of my clenched fists.
There are simply too many wheels to reinvent.
JSPs are valuable because of the infrastructure that the Servlet container
provides. Portability across web servers, and platforms. "Free"
authentication, "Free" session management, "Free" filtering, all easily
configurable with no code changes.
I'm not going to go into the highs and lows of JSPs themselves. The biggest
advantage of JSPs, IMHO, are that they're Just Servlets. Servlets rock, I
think it's a great architecture that has tremendous potential, as shown by
the abundance of frameworks built on top of the basic functionality that
Servlets provide.
With Servlets and JSPs, you can write the most horrible code on the planet
and be ridiculed by knowledgable coders world wide (even if your site works
fine for you), but you can also write some very elegant code. And the best
part, is that you can write crappy code on top of your elegant code when the
time crunches hit.
Anyway, it's the architecture that you get for "Free" that makes this a good
platform choice. Add in the zillions of lines of 3rd party code out there
and I think it's one of the most flexible platforms for web applications on
the market.
Regards,
Will Hartung
(willh@msoft.com)
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